1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computers, and more particularly to a method for generating animation for an on-line book.
2. Description of Related Technology
Currently, there are several web publishing systems by which publishers of textual material can generate books which can be accessed on-line through a computer. One use of on-line books is to display literature on a company""s products and services. Particularly in the computer industry, on-line books are often used to display and advertise goods, such as computers and computer peripherals as well as provide documentation for their use. Similar to traditional books, a reader of the on-line book can view each of the pages sequentially. However, a reader of the on-line books can also use a mouse or other input device to click on selected text to jump or hyper-link to another page in the book. The ability of on-line books to associate words or icons within a page to other words on other pages has caused many publishers to make available on-line versions of their materials.
An example of such a publishing system is the xe2x80x9cWebBook Publisherxe2x80x9d by Modem Age Books. This publishing system creates a plurality of data files which comprise the pages of an on-line book. Once created, the on-line book is typically transmitted by a compact disk to a user. The user then reads the electronic book with a viewing program. An example of a viewing program is the E-Doc 32 software program.
One prevalent viewing format is the Media View Version 1.4 (M14) file format. The M14 has become widely supported since a compiler for this format is part of the public domain. However, one problem with the existing publishing systems is that these systems do not allow for the automatic integration of an animated sequence upon the opening of a book. For example, the WebBook Publisher only provides a mechanism for inserting two visual images on the cover of the on-line book. The publisher of an on-line book typically uses the first image to display a title of the book and the second image to display the copyright notice. The WebBook Publisher does not provide for the ability to include an animated sequence upon the opening of an on-line book. The ability to include an animated sequence at the beginning of the on-line book would allow publishers to distinguish their books from the competition. Currently, manufacturers are unable to take full advantage of the functionality provided by a reader""s computer, which would permit the production of an animated cover.
Therefore, on-line book publishers are in need of an application which provides for the generation of a animated object upon the opening of a book. This application should also allow for the automatic updating of any scripting and compiler files that are needed for the compilation of the on-line book.
One embodiment of the invention is an animation system for updating a plurality of compiler files, comprising at least two graphical images, a data sequencing module which arranges said at least two graphical images in an animated sequence, at least one compilation control file, and an update module which modifies said at least one compilation control file to include a reference to said at least two graphical images.
Another embodiment of the invention includes a system for inserting an animated display into an on-line book, comprising means for ordering a list of images which are displayed upon the opening of an on-line book, means for inserting the ordered list in a scripting file, means for inserting a reference to each of the images in a project file, means for inputting the project file into a compiler, and means for compiling the scripting file and the images into an on-line book.